Inspired by NASA’s Orion Spacecraft

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In the ages of Ferdinand Magellan and Marco Polo, explorers set out to span distances unimaginable to the populous. Whether charting vast oceans or emerging landscape, they carried with them the prospect that, upon their return, the world as they knew it would change. The stories they would tell, the information they would relay and the places they would depict had the potential to expand the realm of possibility. In this spirit, space travel has redefined our contemporary idea of what is possible. Will people one day travel to and live on Mars? What will this mean for the human experience?

At a packed house on Nov. 30, 2016, graduate students in the School of Visual Communication Design's Master of Fine Arts program hosted a gallery opening showcasing their work on Surveys, an exhibit inspired by #NASA_Orion Spacecraft Program. The design exhibition immersed visitors with the goal of challenging people’s thoughts, feelings and perspectives of space travel. Divided into three specific installations, Surveys presented a variety of media including archival video, documentary audio, and found objects. The exhibition was on display in late November and early December in the main gallery of Kent State University's Art Building. #journeytoMars

"It's been a whirlwind semester for this team of eight graduate students, culminating in one amazingly immersive exhibition comprised of three parts: “Place into Words,” a video/audio installation in which multiple persons describe "the most beautiful place is..." while we see videos of Earth juxtaposed with footage of the Mars landscape, “The Overview Effect," a custom-built wall that invites visitors to peer at videos through dome-lenses and see perspectives of Earth from space, and “The Human Factor," an environment showing the passage of time when a family member is away on a space mission for a long period of time," shared VCD Assistant Professor Jessica Barness.

Aimee Crane, a 2012 MFA alumna from the School of Visual Communication Design, is a designer at NASA and served as the group's point person on the project and the go-between with NASA.She was at the gallery opening, along with a few NASA colleagues. Check out the video showcasing the event, and watch for more from Crane on her professional work on the NASA Orion team.